


National "Cat in a Tiara" Day

by hollytrees



Series: Elams College AU [1]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, M/M, Multi, Panic Attacks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-18
Updated: 2016-07-18
Packaged: 2018-07-24 20:18:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7521649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hollytrees/pseuds/hollytrees
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>October 28th is not, generally speaking, an especially good day for Jack Laurens.</p><p>Or, Eliza makes up a holiday and Alex sucks at following directions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	National "Cat in a Tiara" Day

**Author's Note:**

  * For [writelikeitsgoingoutofstyle (twoandahalfslytherins)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/twoandahalfslytherins/gifts).



> This is, uh, not my favorite thing I've ever written, but it's reached a point where I should really stop messing with in and accept that I'm just...not very happy with it. I wrote this for writelikeitsgoingoutofstyle for Cat in a Tiara day and they like it, so I suppose it doesn't really matter what I think.
> 
> Also, there are mentions of implied abuse in here.

Eliza and Jack sat on opposite ends of his bed, facing each other, while Alex lay on the floor below them, typing furiously. Jack squinted at the flashcard Eliza held up as though he could see the definition on the other side if he just tried hard enough.

“Radula. Radula radula radula.” He muttered. “It’s – mollusks have them, right?”

Eliza _mhm_ ed in response.

“It’s a part of a mollusk.” Jack tried to sound more confident than he felt, eyes darting down towards Alex to see if he was inclined to help at all, but the other boy seemed completely absorbed in his work.

“Yes.” Eliza said patiently. “But what part?”

Jack chewed on his lip, but a knock on the door saved him.

“Come in!” Eliza called over Alex’s irritated “What?” and Jack’s more enthusiastic “It’s unlocked.”

Hercules popped his head in the door, eyes scrunched shut. “No kinky threesomes going on in here? Cause, like, whatever floats your boat, man, but I did not agree to see that kinda shit.”

“Yes. Absolutely.” Alex’s tone stayed flat. “If by ‘kinky threesome’ you mean ‘preparing for midterms without touching each other while fully clothed’, then yes, we’re definitely having a threesome right now.”

Hercules opened his eyes so that he could roll them at Alex, then turned his gaze towards Jack. “Anyway. This isn’t gonna take long, just got a quick question for you.”

“Okay.” Jack fidgeted for a second before the bed creaked underneath him and he caught himself.

Hercules leaned against the doorframe. “Is there anything you want to do for your birthday? We can’t do anything big, obviously, but we could – ”

All of the air left Jack’s lungs at once and he could not get any back in. Everything had been going so well that he’d forgotten, stupidly, that birthdays were a thing that happened, that birthdays were a thing that happened to _him_. Hercules, catching sight of his wide, panicked eyes, quickly amended his train of thought. “I mean, you don’t have to decide right now. You’ve got pretty much the whole month. I just was looking that the calendar and thought I’d ask while I was thinking of it.”

Jack shook his head, drawing in one quick breath and then another, but they weren’t enough to fill his lungs and he kept taking them. Dimly, he was aware that Herc was still talking to him, was stepping fully inside of his room and shutting the door behind him. Jack doubled over, still hyperventilating, and Eliza’s hand was on his back, rubbing up and down. He didn’t know when she’d moved to his end of the bed.

“Is this okay?” she asked. “Is this okay or do you not want me to touch you?”

He nodded. The fingers brushing against his spine grounded him and his breathing slowed a bit.

“Hey, man,” Hercules said, voice soft, “we don’t have to do anything if you don’t want. If I’d known that it was gonna freak you out so bad, I wouldn’t have asked.”

Shame coiled in Jack’s stomach. “I’m sorry.” He choked out. “It’s so stupid, it’s just my dad – ”

“Hey, no, it’s okay.” Jack couldn’t find judgment in Hercules’s eyes. “You don’t have to explain if you don’t want to. You can just…not have a birthday.”

Jack nodded, relieved and when the RA left, Alex joined them on the bed. Between the two of them, Alex and Eliza managed to coax Jack into lying down in the middle of the bed.

“I think we’ve done enough work today.” Eliza said in response to Jack’s unspoken question, curling herself around his back while Alex tried and failed to find a comfortable way to occupy the remaining space on the bed. Jack had never found extra long twins to be particularly roomy beds to begin with, but the two extra occupants only made it that much more cramped. Alex had chosen to lie facing Jack and from this distance, Jack could have hypothetically counted his eyelashes if his head hadn’t still been spinning or if he’d had the sort of long-term focus that the task required.

Still, the proximity was the best kind of overwhelming and Jack couldn’t help but kiss him, delighting in the newness of knowing that he could.

 

Jack woke up on October 28th to the buzzing of his phone and dread curling in his stomach. He braced himself and checked his messages.

Predictably, several people from high school who didn’t know him well enough to know how he felt about birthdays had wished him a happy one; one of these days, he needed to figure out how to get Facebook to stop reminding them. Martha had also contacted him, but it was only to inform him that it was a Wednesday, that there was no stabbing on Wednesday, and to express her hopes that he had a happy Wednesday, even without the stabbings. There was also a text from his sister.

FROM MARY

6:29 AM

So funny story

Dad’s cell phone died and he can’t find his charger

And he doesn’t remember your number

So

You’re welcome

She’d probably texted him on the bus, Jack realized, and he shuddered at the hour on her behalf.

TO MARY

9:32 AM

ur the best

ilu

To his relief, she didn’t respond. Jack went to put down his phone before realizing that he still had an unopened text. His heart sank at the idea of someone else rubbing the date into his face and it kept on sinking when he saw who had sent it, despite his brain reassuring him that Eliza had _seen_ him freak out about the birthday thing. Surely she couldn’t be so thoughtless.

FROM LIZARD

9:21 AM

Look at this cat wearing a tiara!

She had included a picture of a grumpy-looking grey cat adorned with a plastic tiara, nestled in a pink feather boa. Jack smiled despite himself.

TO LIZARD

9:35 AM

thats a gr8 cat

He put the phone down to change clothes. When he returned, he had another text from Eliza, emphatically agreeing with his assessment of the cat’s quality, and a new text from Alex.

FROM ALEX

9:44 AM

i heard it was “cat in a tiara day”

so here you go

He then sent a picture of a turtle, not a cat, wearing a shark costume, not a tiara. Jack frowned, puzzled.

TO ALEX

9:48 AM

im not sure u ment to send that?

FROM ALEX

9:49 AM

listen

i'm keeping the spirit of the holiday alive

that’s the important thing

Jack squinted at his phone.

TO ALEX

9:50 AM

the /spirit/ of the holiday?

wtf r u talking abt?

FROM ALEX

9:51 AM

i saw a picture of an animal wearing a thing

i thought of you

i sent it to you

that’s what cat in a tiara day is all about

also

we’re getting pizza tonight

cause eliza’s got a presentation

and she’s really nervous about it

so either we’re going to celebrate or console her with pizza

Jack smiled, wrote back “sounds gr8 2 me”, and slipped his phone back into his pocket before starting to collect his books into his backpack.


End file.
